1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and a method for conveying and operating tools in a wellbore. More particularly, the invention relates to a separable plug for use with a wellbore tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the drilling of oil and gas wells, a wellbore is formed using a drill bit that is urged downwardly at a lower end of a drill string. After drilling a predetermined depth, the drill string and the drill bit are removed, and the wellbore is lined with a string of steel pipe called casing. The casing provides support to the wellbore and facilitates the isolation of certain areas of the wellbore adjacent hydrocarbon bearing formations. An annular area is thus defined between the outside of the casing and the earth formation. This annular area is typically filled with cement to permanently set the casing in the wellbore and to facilitate the isolation of production zones and fluids at different depths within the wellbore. Numerous operations occur in the well after the casing is secured in the wellbore. All operations require the insertion of some type of instrumentation or hardware within the wellbore. For instance, wireline logging tools are employed in the wellbore to determine various formation parameters including hydrocarbon saturation.
Early oil and gas wells were typically drilled in a vertical or near vertical direction with respect to the surface of the earth. As drilling technology improved and as economic and environmental demands required, an increasing number of wells were drilled at angles which deviated significantly from vertical. In the last several years, drilling horizontally within producing zones became popular as a means of increasing production by increasing the effective wellbore wall surface exposed to the producing formation. It was not uncommon to drill sections of wellbores horizontally (i.e. parallel to the surface of the earth) or even “up-hill” where sections of the wellbore were actually drilled toward the surface of the earth.
The advent of severely deviated wellbores introduced several problems in the performance of some wellbore operations. Conventional logging was especially impacted. Conventional logging utilizes the force of gravity to convey logging instrumentation into a wellbore. Gravity is not a suitable conveyance force in highly deviated, horizontal or up-hill sections of wellbores. Numerous methods have been used, with only limited success, to convey conventional instrumentation or “tools” in highly deviated conditions. These methods include the use of conveyance members such as electric wireline, slickline, coiled tubing, or jointed pipe.
Electric wireline or “wireline” is generally a multi-strand wire or cable for use in oil or gas wells. The non-conductive cables provide structural support for the single conductor cable during transport of the wireline into the wellbore. In a logging operation, a logging tool is attached to the wireline and then the tool string is either lowered into the wellbore utilizing the force of gravity or pulled into the wellbore by a tractor device. A slickline is generally a single-strand non-conductive wire with an outer diameter between 5/16″ to ⅜″. Due to the slickline's small diameter (particularly in relation to typical wellbore diameters) and hence minimal columnar buckling resistance, slickline cannot be pushed or urged into the wellbore, but rather slickline must rely on utilizing the force of gravity.
Coiled tubing is a long continuous length of spooled or “reeled” thin walled pipe. Coiled tubing can be “pushed” into a wellbore more readily than wireline or slickline but still has limitations. Coiled tubing units utilize hydraulic injector heads that push the coiled tubing from the surface, allowing it to reach deeper than slickline, but ultimately the coiled tubing stops as well. Coiled tubing is susceptible to a condition known as lockup. As the coiled tubing goes through the injector head, it passes through a straightener; but the tubing retains some residual bending strain corresponding to the radius of the spool. That strain gives the tubing a helical form when deployed in a wellbore and can cause it to wind axially along the wall of the wellbore like a long, stretched spring. Ultimately, when a long enough length of coiled tubing is deployed in the well bore, frictional forces from the wellbore wall rubbing on the coiled tubing cause the tubing to bind and lock up, thereby stopping its progression. Such lock up limits the use of coiled tubing as a conveyance member for logging tools in highly deviated, horizontal, or up-hill sections of wellbores.
Jointed pipe has been used for the deployment of certain downhole devices even where “pushing” is required. In a given diameter range jointed pipe has greater buckling resistance than any of wireline, slickline, or coiled tubing. Each threaded connection (typically every thirty feet) in a string of jointed pipe acts as a column stiffener and upset threaded connections also tend to stand the bulk of the pipe away from the wall of the wellbore thereby reducing cumulative frictional engagement. Jointed pipe is deficient in that it requires a rig (including some form of derrick or crane) for deployment and deployment is very time consuming. Each threaded connection must be made and unmade when correspondingly deploying or retrieving jointed pipe. The additional time consumption and the logistics of moving a rig onto a work location make the use of jointed pipe very expensive as compared with reeled deployment options such as wireline, slickline, and coiled tubing.
Another problem that can adversely affect logging in a wellbore arises when the wellbore contains a high percentage of water relative to the hydrocarbons in the surrounding formations. In this situation, fluid tends to collect and remain static in the lowest point of the wellbore because there is not enough hydrocarbon formation pressure to move the fluid. For instance, fluid tends to collect at a junction between a vertical portion and a deviated portion in a deviated wellbore. Without fluid flow, production logging tools can not operate properly to collect data. To overcome this problem, some form of artificial lift is typically employed to move fluids through the wellbore, such as a submersible pump. The increased velocity of the fluid provides an adequate flow rate for the logging tool to operate.
Generally, the submersible pump is run into the wellbore on production tubing with a Y block between the production tubing and the submersible pump. The Y block allows the pump to be turned on and the well produced while leaving an access point to the lower wellbore for logging tools. Typically, the access point is a smaller string of tubing attached to the Y block which is run along side the submersible pump. In operation, a logging tool is conveyed through the production tubing attached to a string of coiled tubing. As the logging tool passes through the Y block and the smaller string of tubing, a plug attached to the string of coiled tubing lands in a seat formed in the smaller string of tubing. The plug seals off an annular area formed between the coiled tubing and the smaller string of tubing while allowing the string of coiled tubing and the logging tool to continue to travel into the wellbore. Although coiled tubing may be used in deviated wellbores, the coiled tubing presents many drawbacks, such as “bind and lock up” as discussed above. Moreover, the drawbacks of coiled tubing are further complicated in some deep and highly deviated wells, where it may not be possible to provide the required downward force to the downhole components by “pushing” the coiled tubing string (i.e., loading the coiled tubing in compression) from the surface.
A need therefore exists for a reliable and operationally efficient system to convey and operate wellbore tools in wellbores which are deviated from the vertical.